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3 votes
1 answer
370 views

How can I read an Anschütz/Bennert manometer and how can I make sense of it?

Recently I have come across a mercury-filled manometer for vacuum distillation that somewhat resembles a U-tube shaped manometer, but with one arm sealed and completely filled with mercury. Searching ...
Fractal's user avatar
  • 392
0 votes
0 answers
218 views

Can ethanol and heat during distillation cause degradation/dissolution of vinyl tubing leading hot vapors of the distillate to the condenser?

I'm a chemist and a qa lab, and we occasionally test herbal remedy products from one of our customers for alcohol content using a distillation, then using the specific gravity of the distillate to ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 1
1 vote
1 answer
358 views

Steam distillation vs fractional distillation

I am a high school student and I am a little confused in the techniques used to purify organic compounds. For example, in steam distillation we reduce the external pressure on the compound to be ...
Arun Bhardwaj's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
44 views

Strange Distillation Behavior

I was attempting a fractional distillation with 1mL water and 1mL propylene glycol, and I’ve been encountering strange behavior with the heating of the mixture. The heating curve shows strange “spikes”...
COsborne's user avatar
  • 102
7 votes
0 answers
200 views

Distilling milligram quantities of oil like it's late 1970s

In a currently retracted* manuscript by Tomas Hudlicky [1, Retraction Watch] the following has been noted: Fifty years ago professors took an active part in all laboratory instructions and they ...
andselisk's user avatar
  • 38.4k
1 vote
0 answers
49 views

How to handle CO2 being evolved during vacuum distillation?

Setup: vacuum aspirator pump, distillation apparatus with stirring (instead of a bubbler). Partial vacuum around 5" Hg. What would you suggest to hold the vacuum set-point?
steve d.'s user avatar
  • 323
3 votes
1 answer
273 views

Separation of methanol–water mix in a plate distillation column

I conducted an experiment to separate methanol and water. I am trying to determine the mole fraction of the distillate collected but having a little trouble with the calculation. The flow rate was $\...
Emm's user avatar
  • 31
0 votes
2 answers
457 views

Can you heat something at alcohol bath?

I have a mixture of $\ce{Et2O},$ $\ce{EtOH}$ and water, and I want to distill off the ether. I am using a water bath so not much water is distilled over, as the boiling water is 100 °C, and the ...
user81922's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
285 views

Why does steam distillation work?

I'm aware that there is a similar question here but it didn't really answer my specific questions. I understand that steam distillation is used to separate an insoluble liquid from an aqueous solution,...
Gab N.'s user avatar
  • 139
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can I determine purity of isopropanol with a hydrometer?

Assuming I start with a known 99.8% purity of isopropanol, after recovery with a distillation apparatus, could I use a hydrometer to test for water content? If so, is there a special one I should use?
Roman Abbott's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

At what position in the distillation apparatus does the temperature match the boiling point of the distilled substance?

A student is separating $\ce{CHCl3}$ (bp = $\pu{61 ^{\circ}C}$) from $\ce{CHCl2CHCl2}$ (bp = $\pu{146 ^{\circ}C}$) by distillation. She has just begun to collect the first distillate in the receiving ...
fsjkfekjhfek's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
369 views

Last step of nicotine extraction using DCM

After using hydro-distillation method with distilled water and NaOH, separating the extract with dichloromethane, distillate it at 40 °C/104 °F, I'm left with some yellow pale oil. I'm just wondering ...
user64929's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

Isopropyl alcohol still leaves evaporation residue after distillation

I just finished distilling two liters of IPA because evaporating 5 ml on a watch glass revealed it to contain quite a bit of dissolved impurities. However, it still leaves some residue, even though I ...
user62840's user avatar
  • 101
6 votes
4 answers
548 views

To heat or not to heat; distillation?

One of the questions in a recent past paper I completed was: One way to make water from the reservoir suitable for drinking is by distillation. Describe how water is distilled. And I answered ...
minseong's user avatar
  • 223
2 votes
1 answer
741 views

Distilling small volume

I have 50 ml of a compound I would like to purify. Since the impurities presents have close boiling points (b.p.), I have to use fractional distillation. Am I going to lose significant quantity of my ...
klaus's user avatar
  • 71

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